Civic sense: Keeping the city clean, or at least trying
Students come together for a week-long campaign to clean their city Peshawar.
PESHAWAR:
The residents of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital metropolis and students have joined hands to make it clean and add more green spaces in the increasingly polluted city.
In this connection, they launched a week-long campaign dubbed ‘Clean and Green Peshawar’ on Monday, with the collaboration of Sarhad Tourism Corporation and various educational institutions.
Participants of the campaign included mostly students of both private and public universities, madrassas, members of Peshawar Youth Organisation (PYO), civil society activists and traders. The week-long campaign is slated to continue till January 29, Naad-e-Ali, one of the organizers and chief of PYO said.
Different groups of the participants have been allocated certain areas from where they had to collect litter. Not exactly someone’s idea of a perfect week, but it is certainly an effort worthy of appreciation, he added.
Shama, a student at a private education institution, told The Express Tribune that she had been waiting for someone to take the initiative and allow people like herself to get involved. She believes that local people share a responsibility to keep their city clean.
“I am surprised that everyone keeps their homes clean but no one is bothered to keep the city clean,” she said, adding that if the authorities were negligent then the city’s youth must come forward.
More than 98 per cent of the participants are students. Male participants were of the view that women sitting at home should come forward and participate in the campaign, as that would make it more effective.
“Our society is male-dominated and women almost always stay at home, but the sight of 25 women students collecting wrappers from the street is very encouraging and may hopefully motivate other members of the community to come forward,” said Inamullah, a
student of the University of Peshawar.
He said he and his friends would continue to collect rubbish throughout the week. But he did not seem bothered about the week-long chore as he added that similar campaigns should be arranged regularly.
He wished that the government took such initiatives as well, adding that government officials should take part in the campaign and bring along their families.
If nothing else, at least the government should show some support for such laudable efforts.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2011.
The residents of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital metropolis and students have joined hands to make it clean and add more green spaces in the increasingly polluted city.
In this connection, they launched a week-long campaign dubbed ‘Clean and Green Peshawar’ on Monday, with the collaboration of Sarhad Tourism Corporation and various educational institutions.
Participants of the campaign included mostly students of both private and public universities, madrassas, members of Peshawar Youth Organisation (PYO), civil society activists and traders. The week-long campaign is slated to continue till January 29, Naad-e-Ali, one of the organizers and chief of PYO said.
Different groups of the participants have been allocated certain areas from where they had to collect litter. Not exactly someone’s idea of a perfect week, but it is certainly an effort worthy of appreciation, he added.
Shama, a student at a private education institution, told The Express Tribune that she had been waiting for someone to take the initiative and allow people like herself to get involved. She believes that local people share a responsibility to keep their city clean.
“I am surprised that everyone keeps their homes clean but no one is bothered to keep the city clean,” she said, adding that if the authorities were negligent then the city’s youth must come forward.
More than 98 per cent of the participants are students. Male participants were of the view that women sitting at home should come forward and participate in the campaign, as that would make it more effective.
“Our society is male-dominated and women almost always stay at home, but the sight of 25 women students collecting wrappers from the street is very encouraging and may hopefully motivate other members of the community to come forward,” said Inamullah, a
student of the University of Peshawar.
He said he and his friends would continue to collect rubbish throughout the week. But he did not seem bothered about the week-long chore as he added that similar campaigns should be arranged regularly.
He wished that the government took such initiatives as well, adding that government officials should take part in the campaign and bring along their families.
If nothing else, at least the government should show some support for such laudable efforts.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2011.